4 killed in Aurora, CO shooting

Gunman and 3 others killed in CO townhouse

AURORA, Colo. |
January 5, 2013

A man believed to have killed three people in an Aurora, Colo., townhouse died by gunfire after holding police off for several hours Saturday, officials said.

Police had not said by Saturday afternoon whether the man was killed by police or took his own life, The Denver Post reported.

The standoff began after a woman escaped from the house just before 3 a.m. MST and called for help, saying she had seen three "lifeless" bodies, Aurora police spokeswoman Cassidee Carlson said.

Aurora was the scene of one of the most notorious recent mass shootings in July when 12 people were killed at a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises."

The gunman in Saturday's shooting fired at an armored vehicle dispatched to the neighborhood. Police evacuated residents of nearby homes.

"I was brutally awakened. I've never been so scared in my life," Michael Ignace, who lives in another unit in the building where the shootings occurred, told the Post.

The gunman could be heard moving furniture against the doors of the townhouse, Carlson said. He answered the telephone several times as police tried to negotiate with him but said nothing intelligible.

"He was not making sense," Carlson said.

Police said they found the bodies of two men and a woman as well as the man believed to have killed them.

The names of the gunman and the victims were not released but Carlson said they may all have been related.